Raw Video: Militia Members at U.S. Embassy Grounds in Libya
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Amateur video shows what appears to be Libyan militia members enjoying the pool on the grounds of the U.S. embassy in Tripoli. The embassy was evacuated in July due to security concerns. Photo: AP/Amateur UGC Video

WSJ Live

01 Sep 2014

News/World

LIBYA’S toothless outgoing government admitted it has in effect lost control of Tripoli to armed militias.

The interim government led by prime minister Abdullah al-Thani, which resigned last week, said armed groups, mostly Islamist militias, were in control of ministries and blocking access to government workers.

“Ministry and state offices in Tripoli have been occupied by armed militias who are preventing government workers from entering and are threatening their superiors,” the government said in a statement.

It said the interim government was in contact with officials and “trying to ensure the continuity of services from afar.”

In control ... an Islamist fighter from the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition flashes the V sign for victory at the entrance of Tripoli international airport after capturing it. Picture: Mahmud TurkiaSource: AFP

The militia group has also “secured” a US Embassy residential compound in Tripoli, more than a month after American personnel evacuated from the country over ongoing fighting, one of its commanders said Sunday.

Libya has been sliding into chaos since Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed three years ago, with interim authorities confronting powerful militias which fought to oust the veteran dictator.

The interim government announced last week it had tendered its resignation to the elected parliament, days after a rival Islamist administration was created.

The parliament and government are operating out of Libya’s east for security reasons.

A rival body, the General National Congress, last week named pro-Islamist figure Omar al-Hassi to form a “salvation government”.

‘Preventing looting’ ... member of the Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) Islamist militia holds an artwork in the living room of a villa at the US diplomatic compound in the Libyan capital Tripoli. Picture: Mahmud TurkiaSource: AFP

‘No damage’ ... a member of the Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) Islamist militia stands at the gym of a villa at the US diplomatic compound. Pictuer: Mahmud TurkiaSource: AFP

Interim authorities have been steadily losing ground to the militias and the Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) mainly Islamist alliance, which seized Tripoli airport on August 22 after weeks of fierce fighting with nationalist rivals.

On Sunday, Islamist militiamen moved into the US embassy compound in Tripoli that was evacuated in late July, with videos showing cheering men diving from an upstairs balcony into the facility’s swimming pool.

@AmCo15 To my knowledge & per recent photos the US Embassy Tripoli chancery & compound is now being safeguarded and has not been ransacked.

An Associated Press journalist walked through the compound on Sunday afterFajr Libya invited onlookers inside. Some windows at the compound had been broken, but it appeared most of the equipment there remained untouched. The journalist saw treadmills, food, televisions and computers still inside.

A commander for the Dawn of Libya group, Moussa Abu-Zaqia, told the AP that his forces had entered and been in control of the compound since last week, a day after it has seized control of the capital and its international airport after weeks of fighting with a rival militia. Abu-Zaqia said the rival militia was in the compound before his troops took it over.

Fajr Libya members said they had gone in to secure the complex of several villas in southern Tripoli, not far from the airport, to prevent it from being looted.

US Ambassador Deborah Jones, now posted in Malta, said on Twitter that there was no indication the complex had been damaged.

Ms Jones said the video posted online appeared to have been shot in at the embassy’s residential annex, though she said she couldn’t “say definitively” since she wasn’t there.

“To my knowledge & per recent photos the US Embassy Tripoli chancery & compound is now being safeguarded and has not been ransacked,” she wrote on Twitter.

On July 26, U.S. diplomats evacuated the compound and the capital to neighboring Tunisia under a U.S. military escort as fighting between rival militias intensified and thousands fled. The State Department said embassy operations would be suspended until the security situation improved.

Typically, local forces provide security for diplomatic posts, but Libya’s government has largely relied on militias for law enforcement since Gadhafi’s ouster, as its military and police forces remain weak. In the past several weeks, the security vacuum in Tripoli deepened as militia violence worsened. It remains unclear who the U.S. left in control of guarding its facilities after its personnel evacuated.

Growing insecurity ... damage in the front yard of a building at the US Embassy compound in Tripoli, Libya, after weeks of violence between rival militias over control of the capital. Picture: APSource: AP

Several foreign missions have fled in the face of growing insecurity in the capital.

On August 25, Thani, the prime minister, accused Fajr Libya militiamen, who hail mostly from the city of Misrata, east of the capital, of having ransacked and set ablaze his residence in southern Tripoli where the airport is also located.

A political transition has been stymied by the political deadlock pitting Fajr Libya against the internally-exiled authorities, which are operating from Tobruk, 1500 kilometres from the capital.

Fajr Libya rejects the legitimacy of the elected parliament because it allegedly supported air raids last month - which US officials said were carried out by the United Arab Emirates - against its fighters deployed at the airport before they defeated nationalist militia rivals.

Parliament has in turned branded Fajr Libya as terrorists, putting them in the same boat as the Ansar al-Sharia jihadists who control most of second city Benghazi.

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